Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Menu

When I last worked Downtown in Indianapolis — and yes, we write it with a capital D here — the building in the middle of this photograph didn’t exist. It was a vacant lot. Whatever had stood there before had been razed. For all I know the building(s) there were razed for what was to come: the headquarters of Emmis Communications, which owns radio and TV stations in many major markets including New York and Los Angeles, as well as here in Indianapolis. That was in 1996; the building was complete in 1998.

But I’d moved on from that job by then and was working in a suburban office park on the Northwestside. Again, yes, that’s how we write “northwest side” here. Anyway, I worked various jobs in the north suburbs for more than 20 years before landing Downtown again this year. In the 90s, Downtown was just beginning to resurge after a long period of decline and neglect. Today it’s hard for me to believe how vibrant and vital and interesting it is. I love working Downtown and I hope I never have another job in the suburbs.

But Monument Circle is much the same as it always was, with the exception of the completed Emmis building.

The good people at Analogue Wonderland sent me this roll of Ilford FP4 Plus in exchange for this mention. Get your FP4 Plus from them here.

7 thoughts on “single frame: On the circle”

That empty space you talked about that is now Emmis was a Downtown Department store. The main entrance to the store was on Washington St and this was a 3-4 story extension to the Circle. It might have been Wassons.

I under the use of the capitalised “Downtown”. In this part of New Jersey, New York City, specifically Manhattan, is referred to as “The City”. Currently, I work for a UK based bank with offices in New Jersey and Wall Street Manhattan. When I work in The City I love exploring the streets of the financial district and the seaport area with my Fujifilm X-T2.

I have tried Ilford HP5 Plus 400 with my Asahi Spotmatic II but I am challenged to get the right exposure for varying lighting conditions. Parts of the seaport area are under the FDR drive and some parts are fully exposed to the sun and the Spotmatic’s maximum shutter speed is 1/1000 sec. Perhaps I need to try faster Ilford FP4 Plus.